HBO’s ‘Veep’ Gets an Audience With the Real Veep

A few months ago, Vice President Joseph Biden’s office launched a regular feature with the reality-show like title, “Being Biden.” It usually features a photo with audio of Biden explaining what is happening in the picture.

Today, “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus does the audio, to a photo of her sitting at Biden’s desk with the vice president joking with her. She had lunch with Biden on Friday, when she taped the segment of “Being Biden.” His office tweeted out the photo and audio on Friday afternoon.

“This is a picture of two vice presidents hard at work in the vice president’s office in the West Wing,” she said in the audio. “I came to have lunch with Vice President Joe Biden, and I surprise him by sitting at his desk, so he thought he’d just ask my advice on various briefs he had to deal with. And I was happy to give him my advice, which he paid no attention to whatsoever, which is why he is such a wise vice president.”

She added, “And we had a lovely lunch, and it is a day I will never forget.”

The life-mixing-it-up-with-art segment is amusing, but also promotion for HBO: “Veep” has its second-season premiere on Sunday.

This is only the latest example of White House mixing with pop culture, often to the benefit of producers in the form of additional publicity. Biden made a cameo appearance on “Parks & Recreation” in November. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama endorsed the Jackie Robinson biopic “42,” which opened today, with a White House screening and Q&A featuring the film’s stars and director.